The Gift
by MysticVeil
Summary: Giving gifts in the arena is an almost impossible sight. You can't give gits in the arena. What can you possibly have to give? And due to the cirumstances, you don't usually live long enough to develop a likeness for someone to give them anything anyways. And as impossible a sight gift giving is, a career saving a tribute from an weak District is even more impossible. One-Shot.


I carefully make my way through the woods. I'm walking silently, something I pride myself on. I manuever around a fallen tree, jumping over a small bush on the other side. Then I hear it. A twig snap. And something flying through the air. I duck just in time to be spared from getting impaled by a sharp spear. It lodges in the tree beside me. I jump up, and I see the District 1 tributes staring at me, both grinning. The girl has the bow and arrow in her hands. I glare at her, and easily avoid the arrow she sends. That makes them mad. They both run towards me, and I start running. Then I see a good climbing tree and I quickly start to climb, but the District 1 boy, Marvel, is fast. He grabs my ankle and pulls me down. I go down with a hard thud. I kick his wrist and he growls. I see a handle sticking out of his boot, and I quickly yank it free, and it's a small, but sharp knife. Then someone hits be with something hard on the head. I yelp, and then jump up and I cut the girls throat with my knife. She makes an odd gurgling sound, and blood spurts out of her neck. The cannon fires. The boy jumps on me, pinning me to the ground. He has fire in his eyes.

"Any last words, rat?" he snarls.

Then he's ripped off me. And a sword's thrust through his chest. He falls to the ground, and the cannon sounds. I crawl backwards, and I see Cato choking Marvel. He looks at me, and then quickly nods to the woods. I jump up, running as quickly as I can away from him. I don't know if Cato is going to follow me, but one thing I do know is he just saved my life. Cato... saved me.

o0o

Cato didn't follow me, he didn't kill me. It's been a day since he saved me, and I'm walking through the woods again. Then I come to a clearing... and I see him.

I approach him silently. He's leaning against a tree, his back to me. I can see he has his sword raised, and he appears to be polishing it. The sunlight glints off the blade, making me squint as the light hits my eyes. I reach him, and I see him tense and he glances over his shoulder.

"Hello, fire girl." he says and turns around, a smirk growing on his face.

"Cato," I whisper. "Why did you do it?" I ask him.

"Do what?" he asks, looking back at his sword.

"You know what. Yesterday, you... you saved me," I whisper.

"I could have been saving you for myself, never thought about, huh, fire girl?" he murmurs.

"No..." I admit. I truly didn't, and now I've revealed myself. I've made a huge mistake. "Are you going to kill me, Cato?" I ask him.

"I could... but I don't think... no." he stammers.

"Why?"

"I... I can't. I can't kill you, Katniss. You're a fighter, not like the rest of the bastards here." he says.

I'm shocked, but thrilled. Cato looks at me once more, his icy blue eyes capturing mine. I then notice dried blood on his forehead. Must be from a fight. I step forwards, and carefully wipe away the blood from his face. He sighs, closing his eyes and allowing me to wipe the blood off. I finish, my fingers lingering on his cheek. He reaches up, covering my hand with his. He sighs, leaning into my hand. He opens his eyes, staring at me. And then he pulls away from me, releasing my hand. He starts to walk away, but then there's one thing I need to give him. The only gift I can give.

"Cato!" I shout. He turns back to me, and I run to him. I open my jacket, revealing my pin. I pull it off my jacket, and take his wrist and press the pin in his hands. I close his fingers around it, and look up at him.

"To protect you." I tell him.

"Thank you." he whispers. I smile at him, and then I tun and walk away from him. I just gave him my pin, and I know that my District may be angry with me, but Cato did save my life. And it's my turn to protect him. Or at least give him a symbol of hope, because you need hope in the Hunger Games.

**Another Cato and Katniss story :) sorry, I just love them. I saw a pitcure on Tumblr of Katniss giving Cato the pin, and I loved it. I wanted to write a fanfic about it for a while, and now I finally did :P but the credit goes to the wonderful person who made that beautiful picture. **


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